Modern vehicle safety systems commonly include a variety of devices such as seat belts and airbags. Such systems are commonly designed to work together with sensors and other structural elements such as door beams, side sill sections, and body panels.
In one such safety system, a side airbag is utilized in conjunction with vehicle structure to protect an occupant in the event of a side impact collision. In such an impact, side airbags are designed to deploy when a predetermined dynamic load is applied to the side of the vehicle. The timing of the airbag's deployment should be controlled so as to function properly with the other safety components.
To ensure proper timing of an airbag system, an airbag sensor is typically utilized to detect a dynamic load experienced by a vehicle and to send a deployment decision signal to the airbag. For a side airbag system, the airbag sensor is commonly disposed in the structure of the vehicle, such as in a support pillar. The airbag sensor evaluates system conditions such as acceleration and velocity resulting from a dynamic load applied to the vehicle and determines whether or not to deploy the airbag. If the system conditions meet a predetermined criteria, the system will cause the airbag to deploy.
Conversely, airbag sensors are also operable to prevent deployment of the airbag when the system responses conditions do not meet the criteria, such as when the vehicle experiences a low speed impact. To prevent deployment of an airbag during a low speed impact, conventional airbag sensors are commonly disposed within the vehicle such that the vehicle outer structure must deform a predetermined amount before sending a signal to an airbag sensor.
While these conventional systems adequately prevent deployment of an airbag under a low speed impact, such systems typically suffer from the disadvantage of causing an undesirable delay in the deployment of the airbag under a high speed or high load impact, due to the airbag sensor being disposed within a structure of the vehicle.
Therefore, a vehicle safety system designed with structural intent for reliable and immediate deployment of an airbag following a high speed impact event while concurrently preventing deployment of the airbag under a low speed impact event in a consistent manner is desirable in the industry.